In today's digital landscape, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need to leverage every tool at their disposal to stay competitive. Email marketing remains one of the most effective channels for engaging with customers, building relationships, and driving sales. By automating key email workflows, SMBs can save time, increase efficiency, and ensure consistent communication with their audience. Here are the top five email workflows every SMB should automate today.
1. Welcome Email Workflow
First impressions matter, and a welcome email sequence sets the tone for your relationship with new subscribers. Automating this workflow ensures that every new subscriber receives a timely and personalized introduction to your brand.
Liz Wilcox, in her podcast "The Email Sound Booth," emphasizes the importance of a welcome sequence:
"For example, like, and I don't think my system is all too complicated, right? Uh, but I've got a welcome sequence running."
[The Email Sound Booth with Liz Wilcox]
A well-designed welcome workflow can introduce your brand values, showcase your best content or products, and guide subscribers toward their next steps with your business.
2. Nurture Sequence Workflow
Consistent engagement keeps your audience interested and invested in your brand. Automating a nurture sequence allows you to deliver valuable content regularly without manual effort.
Jenny Roth shares her email schedule on "The Email Marketing Podcast":
"So here's what my email marketing strategy looks like. On Mondays, I always send out what I call a podcast episode... On Wednesdays, I always send some kind of community building email... And then on Fridays, I send what I call my dear female founder newsletter."
[The Email Marketing Podcast]
By planning and automating regular emails, you maintain a steady presence in your subscribers' inboxes, fostering relationships and keeping your brand top of mind.
3. Re-engagement Workflow
Over time, some subscribers may become inactive. A re-engagement workflow helps you reconnect with these individuals and determine if they wish to remain on your list.
Liz Wilcox discusses the importance of identifying and managing cold subscribers:
"It will arrange it according to who's a cold subscriber, right? Somebody who hasn't opened in a while, um. It'll tell me, um, you know, who's unsubscribed, who, who's complained, who's, um, you know, who didn't confirm, right? It manages those lists for me and it makes it really simple to look at that data."
[The Email Sound Booth with Liz Wilcox]
Automating re-engagement emails can help clean your list, improve open rates, and ensure you're communicating with an engaged audience.
4. Strong Call-to-Action (CTA) Workflow
Every email should have a clear purpose, and a strong call-to-action guides your subscribers toward desired actions. Automating emails with effective CTAs can boost engagement and conversion rates.
Ken Countess highlights the importance of CTAs in his "Everything Email" podcast:
"Here are some easy to implement tips for strong calls to action. Make that CTA or call to action easy to spot in the email. Use buttons or text links or both, and keep it above the scroll, meaning when someone opens up that email, they shouldn't have to scroll in order to see what it is you want them to do."
[Everything Email podcast with Ken Countess]
By automating emails that encourage specific actions—whether it's completing a purchase, signing up for an event, or downloading a resource—you can streamline your sales funnel and drive results.
5. Unsubscribe and List Management Workflow
It's essential to respect your subscribers' preferences and make it easy for them to unsubscribe if they choose. Automating the unsubscribe process and managing your list ensures compliance and maintains your sender reputation.
From the "Email’s Not Dead" podcast, the importance of managing unsubscribes is discussed:
"But it's also one of those things that you do want people to unsubscribe if they're no longer interested because it's better to have them out of your list... rather than them just seeing your emails unimportant, letting it go to the junk folder..."
[Email's Not Dead from Sinch Mailgun]
By automating this workflow, you respect your subscribers' choices and keep your email list clean, which can improve deliverability and open rates.
Conclusion
Automating these key email workflows allows SMBs to engage effectively with their audience while saving time and resources. By setting up welcome sequences, nurture emails, re-engagement campaigns, strong CTAs, and efficient unsubscribe processes, you can maintain meaningful connections with your subscribers, drive conversions, and grow your business.
Start implementing these workflows today to take your email marketing to the next level.
